You anchor off the yacht club or down the river; not upriver of the club or the fishermen will chase you. Be careful to be well inside the buoyed channel or you will be moved. Anchoring between the boats and the unused moorings can be tight but the boats tend not to turn on the tide as the flood stream is quite weak. Depths are 9 to 11 meters and not 3 to 4 meters as suggested in one pilot book.

Dinghy dock at the club, but this was largely dismantled at the time of my visit (June 2010).

All formalities can be carried out at the club, but for some reason, they refuse to give you an exit paper. The first three days are free then R$35 per day. For this, you get to use some of the club’s facilities but visitors cannot use the pool, sauna or tennis courts. The showers are adequate but cold water only. You pay for water. The bar is good (some evening entertainment) and the food good, if expensive by Brazilian standards.

Easy bus into town (number 47) but get directions to the stop as it is a request stop under an unmarked tree (small street perpendicular to the main road 100 meters left-hand side as you walk up the hill).

Anthony Swanston

SV Wild Fox